Wednesday, December 28, 2011

52 at First Glance, Part Five

Another Batman title and how could I not choose to get on the ground floor of Detective Comics? More Batman! Maybe too much Batman. Because there are still more to come.

I don't recognize the writer or artist.

The cover shows Batman beating the Joker to a pulp amongst a bunch of doll heads! Exciting! I also forgot to mention the Batman cover which I should now mention and you should pretend you read it in the post about Batman. It shows Batman beating up a bunch of his crazy ass familiar foes. See? That works! It'll bring in the readers! Are you listening to me, Flash Cover Artist? Idiot!

18. BatwomanWriter: J.H. Williams IIIArtist: W. Haden Blackman

This title is pretty fancy judging by all those initials and capital 'I's in the art teams names! The cover art is also all misty and surreal. It's kind of like a boudoir photo taken by a fat military housewife as a secret, special gift for the neighbor she's been fucking while her man is on tour. Including the half-eaten fish still on the floor. Maybe that makes Batwoman interesting?

I might be more interested in Batwoman if I knew anything about her. I think possibly she made her debut in 52 (the series that started this mess!) but I can't remember for sure. I already told you what I remember about 52 and I promised I wouldn't spoil the Skeets thing!

I probably would have passed this title sitting alone at the bottom shelf and walked over to the counter to pick up Batgirl instead.

Definitely looking forward to this title. This may be the title that plays up the villains a little more than the other titles. At least in Legends of the Dark Knight, it felt that way. So I'm kind of expecting some great showdowns in this thing.

Plus, isn't that David Finch guy kind of famous somehow? He makes like, movies or something? Is this another one of those Kevin Smither gimmicks?!

So I finally did use Google because I knew the name Peter J. Tomasi but I couldn't place what comic he might have written that I had read. Well, it looks like he didn't write any of them. But he was the editor on a lot of titles I read. Lobo. Hitman. Demon. He was listed under Dan Raspler, another name I would have recognized and had to look up. So ha ha on you, editors! Nobody remembers what you do!

Robin might not be the favorite of a lot of people but I would not have passed up the opportunity to see what another writer does with this relationship. And the cover says it all. Batman in the dark. Grim. Low down. Hiding. Subtle. Robin flying above him. Cape unfurled. Fully bathed in light. Smile on his lips. One serving justice at any cost. The other playing with his brooding friend.

This always seemed like a team-up that would have never existed but for comic silliness and early writers (even Bob Kane!) not fully understanding what and who Batman really was. I guess what he could and would become. But Batman took his name and look to be a symbol of fear. Or am I retconning even that?

How come Batman allows this kid to fight crime with him when Batman knows exactly how insane and psychotic the enemies he faces are? What does Batman see in this kid? What does Batman NEED from Robin? That's what I'm always looking for.

My cynical side says Batman is just using the kid to attract dangerous attention away from him."Alfred, you know what I could really use? A loud kid in a bright shiny outfit to draw fire away from me!""I'll get right on that, sir."